• Source:JND

Tim Cook is stepping down, and August 31 marked his last day as the chief of one of the most extraordinary companies we know of, Apple. From September 1 2026, John Ternus will take the helm of the Cupertino-based tech giant, taking the seat that Cook has held since 2011.

On his last day, Tim Cook couldn't help but get a bit emotional about his exit from this role and left a heartfelt and emotional message to the Apple community, thanking them for their support and to look towards what lies ahead. But this is not the end for Tim Cook yet at Apple, as the company has more planned for him.

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Taking to X, Tim Cook shared, "Sending lots of love to the Apple community on my last day as CEO. My title changes tomorrow, but the love I have for the Apple community never will. Thank you for being a constant source of inspiration. My gratitude is endless, and I'm excited for the next chapter!"

 

Tim Cook's New Role At Apple

Now Apple has planned the seat of the company's Executive Chairman for Tim Cook going forward. This comes after 15 years as CEO and nearly 3 decades of being a part of the Cupertino-based company. The role of CEO was handed over to Cook by Jobs just a few weeks before he passed due to pancreatic cancer in 2011.

A Walk Through Tim Cook's Career At Apple

Cook was hired by Jobs in 1998, and by 2005, Cook was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and solidified his position in the organisation. Under Cook, Apple reached new heights and became one of the most valuable companies in existence, and currently holds a market valuation of $4.5 trillion as of Monday.

But Tim Cook kept it humble and said, "Whatever there is to say about my Success, I know it is all because of you", to his staff. The company has around 166,000 employees, according to its latest annual report.

Cook's image was as a savant of supply-chain expertise and not a traditional role leader like Jobs was in product. In Tim Cook's era, the company's annual revenue rose from almost $108 billion in 2011 to more than $400 billion. What led to this growth? It was iPhone's sustained demand growth, rapid services growth and Apple's expansion on a global level. This was also the key challenge for Cook: whether he could sustain the Cupertino-based tech giant's innovation-led growth.

Apple, under Cook's leadership, became a business that extends just beyond usual hardware changes and encompasses services like the App Store, Apple Music and Apple Pay, which slowly cascaded into people's lifestyles, creating an important ecosystem for Apple, which also became its growth engine for the future.

John Ternus Becomes CEO

With John Ternus taking the helm, it seems like Apple is going to grab on to its previous ideology, as Ternus is more of a hardware guy, so what we can expect is the fact that Apple might start moving towards a more product-centric, hardware-led innovation.

Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and subsequently climbed the ladder to senior vice president of hardware engineering, which reports to Cook. He is the lead when it comes to Apple's engineers, which also includes the highest revenue-generating product, the iPhone.

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Ternus now has only a week to settle in as the new chief of Apple, as on September 9 the company is holding its 'Surprise and Shine' event, in which the company is expected to drop its highly anticipated foldable, the iPhone Ultra, along with the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. This time, the base variant might not be making its way to the market just yet, as the company has cited supply-side logistics.

AI will be another challenge for Ternus, as the company currently lags behind its rivals in this area, and with AI taking more and more precedence in the tech industry, this will be a crucial step for the new chief.


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